A perfect Halloween for Mario and Princess Peach. He kept saying he wanted to be a Jedi, AGAIN. However, about a week ago when I was looking at some costumes online, he saw a Mario costume and wanted that. As soon as he said he was going to be Mario, Zora wanted to be Princess Peach. I checked to make sure she wouldn’t rather be Luigi, showing her the costume, but she wanted to be the Princess. So, we went looking for a “Princess” costume that would work. Then we spent the next week being asked every 5 minutes if the mail was here yet and if the costumes would be there today. lol.

In the afternoon the kids went to ROCKO and had a ball doing crafts, playing, and enjoying themselves. (and had somebody else have to hear “is it time to trick or treat yet?” all afternoon) While they were entertained, we went out to “Il Vicino” and then to a toy store and bookstore. When we picked them up, they had put on their costumes and there was a “trunk or treat” right outside in the parking lot, so we were able to make good use of those costumes immediately.

We ran home for some costume adjustments, the mustache and inflatable tummy for Zane, body & hair glitter for Zora (which didn’t really show up on the pictures, but she was all sparkly in person), and the Umbrella that Zora insisted on because Princess Peach carried one, and a few pictures before we were surrounded with distractions. Zach made Zane’s Question Mark Block candy carrier. (It is from the game for the non-Mario players around)

Zane kept saying “It’s ME, Mario!” (like he says it in the game), but the problem is that he flattened out his mustache, effectively taping over his mouth, so it sounded more like “mmm MMM MmmMmmm”

And off to College Hill for the festivities. Our neighborhood has no real trick or treating and we have gone to this area before, but never to the heart of the celebration where they have the streets blocked off and police directing traffic. We went early, so it wasn’t crowded, it was parents with younger kids, nobody was drunk, and everybody was in a great mood.

Zane didn’t want the taped on mustache and we did one with make up. It was gradually wiped off with his white glove through the night though. We met one other Mario and a Luigi along the way. I suspect the Luigi was also Autistic because both were excited to see the other one, called out the other’s name, but mostly just stood there giggling about it. We also had a few comments on the candy box, and you could tell when people played the game or not as to whether they just called Zora a Princess, or “Look…Princess Peach too!”. lol.

At one point, a flock of birds flew overhead and Zane asked if they were birds or bats, and grinned when we said that we would pretend they were bats since it is halloween.

We ended up going the perfect amount for the kids. They were tired and dragging a bit, but not complaining (except that Zora wanted to be carried once in a while), and when I said there were four more houses until the car, they happily went to the houses, then to the car, with no complaints about being done at all. Zora zonked out in the car on the way home, but woke up to help consume the candy. It was a fun day.

Ok, I love tv. Really. I know it is bad for you, and I don’t care. We finally joined the modern ages when we got AT&T U-Verse for less than we were paying for DirecTV (and MUCH better customer service), and ended up with far more services for about half the price than we were paying before, and especially love the DVR service. No getting irritated because we want to watch something not appropriate for our kids because we can record it and watch it after they are down.

Our “Like to Watch” Shows:
House
Kitchen Nightmares
Rachael Maddow
John Stewart
Stephen Colbert
Law & Order, but I like the episodes with D’Onofrio or Goldblum the best
NCIS

Our “Will Watch if We Have Watched Everything Else” Shows:
CSI
Ghost Whisperer
Numbers
Flashpoint
How I met your Mother
Dancing with the Stars
Pretty much anything on the Science Channel, National Geographic, and Most Discovery Channels
TLC Channel
Biography
American Idol
Those “How do they make that” type shows and Mythbusters
The History Channel (although not much of the war stuff)

I also recently discovered that the “Videos on Demand” have a bunch of fitness videos on it, which is pretty cool.

In a fabulous turn of events this week, Zane is the only one who showed up for his age group’s swimming lesson, so he, in effect, got a private lesson. It was really good for him and I like his teacher a lot. (I like both teachers, but it is a lot more challenging to get good teachers for Zane) Zora, on the other hand, loves being in her group of “bwends” (friends), so she was a happy girl to be in the group.

Trying to get him to jump in the water. He looks like he might actually do it….

…but at the last minute it usually turns into this. lol. He did get a bit better at it this week, but apparently, it is going to take a while for a full fledge, free flying leap into the water.

In the background is Zora going from one part of the pool to another near the end of the lesson, and Zane in the foreground giving the adults an adrenaline rush as he reaches into the (deep) lap pool.

In OT today Zane took the “Oops” PEC card velcro’ed to the OT’s computer (he is working on typing) and put it upside down, then giggled and said “Oops!”

Which reminds me….

Last Saturday, at the ROCKO event, when they were playing outside a ball got stuck in a tree. Zane noticed it and Terese was trying to get him to have a conversation about the ball. He misinterpreted what she was saying, took a ball and walked to a shorter tree and proceeded to work to get it stuck in the tree too. She then had to tell him to not do that, and he turned to her and said “Ball stuck in tree all done?” Yes Zane, all done. Such a Zane-ism.

He was working with some code, trying to make it do something it was never intended to do and this is his email: “When making this software sing a tune that it was never designed to sing, I have found the logic quite complex behind the commonly expected results. Buy me an amp. I’m about to make this rock.”

Zora loves Spiderman. Despite the fact we are sci-fi nerds, neither of us is really into Spiderman, although both dh’s best friend and my best friend’s dh are all into it. We don’t dislike it or anything, just never really got into it. However, both of the boys that Zora likes are really into it and she has been seduced into the Spiderman world. She takes the Spidy undies that Zane doesn’t really care about, and chose Spiderman bandaids over both rainbows and princesses. Nerdy girl.
(nothing is *really* wrong with her fingers, she just managed to find a crazy number of “owies” once she discovered the wonder of Spidy bandages)